Flickchart: Need a Reason to Procrastinate?
The Godfather or The Wizard of Oz?
I’m usually all about avoiding confrontation.
And when I say “confrontation” I mean picking favorites, saying I intrinsically like one thing more than another if I like them both. And it’s the worst with movies. I’ve always been an “every piece is different” guy, a “they’re too different to compare” guy. I mean, look at something like the British vs American versions of The Office. The latter has been on for over 5 seasons now, more than 100 episodes, while the former ran for only 12 episodes and a special. Or something like picking what’s better, The Sopranos or Seinfeld. The question’s impossible to answer.
But then came Flickchart, the site that staggers one movie against another–Alien or There’s Something About Mary; Say Anything or High Fidelity; Out of Sight or Batman–and makes you choose, no matter what. There is no skip button. There is no “pass.” And the results come together to make an ordered list of your supposed favorite movies of all time.
The whole idea, in an incredibly addictive, interesting way goes against everything I’ve ever believed. Being forced to weigh dramas against comedies, noir against surreal. But let me tell you, when you get that first set that stumps you, leaves you staring at the screen weighing “enjoyment” against “appreciation,” thinking desert island picks…it makes for a fun, and way more challenging than you’d expect, kind of soul searching.
The site also has a friends feature and forums. And it keeps track of the amount of movies you’ve seen and even the total time you’ve spent watching those movies–which, for some of us, might be TMI. (I’m already over 17 days and have barely gotten started.)
The system’s definitely not perfect–Almost Famous, which is a movie I like but am far from loving, was my #1 for awhile just because it never came up against any steep competition. So it has its issues, but they get sorted out the more you compare and re-rank.
Go HERE to sign up for free. I’m logged in as MellotronSounds. Be my friend? …Please?
This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 7:16 pm and is filed under film, whatever else. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
